I watched Freddie Flintoff’s new documentary about his accident recently and cried through the whole thing. What a lovely humble man. He always has been but this really opened my eyes to his vulnerability. My own accident happened in 2011 and as ok as I am with it, things still come up for me. Watching something about trauma, or suddenly remembering it myself feels visceral, I can feel it in my body. I was left with no physical scars, I am thankful for that, yet I can be reminded of it often. If I see someone making slow progress, or in pain who doesn’t know how to get out of it, I try to think of what I did to get out of pain. I want to give people hope by sharing from my own experience.
– When we injure ourselves we seize up to protect ourselves. But instead of seizing up, can you let go? Allow your hips to rotate and get loose. Your shoulders will follow. To coin a phrase, people around me have started to refer to this as ‘Loosey Goosey’. In yoga we wiggle if we have a niggle. Animals do it to reset themselves by doing up dog, down dog, a yawn. Why shouldn’t we? I do believe we can reverse a lot of back injuries by doing this. People find their own ways with their own historical injuries.
⁃ Water is great for testing movement. If you are sore the next day you know to be more conservative next time. If you can’t do it on land, try in water. Push boundaries but don’t break them. Great for trying range of motion for an ankle sprain, or break and to build muscle back up – doing calf raises in water, when you can’t due to pain on land. There is much research going into cold water bathing/swimming and its benefits, even the highs of cold water vs those of cocaine. I will also get in any cold water going – wild swimming, a sauna and the sea. Live on the edge sometimes. But a hot bath is still my favourite!
⁃ Rest. Lie down often, even if you think you should be doing something more important. It’s a reset. Yoga nidra is the best. It’s great to induce a nap if silence isn’t your thing, so acts as a companion and a timer all at the same time.
⁃ Somatics is great for getting back to movement. Especially if you’ve lost faith or trust in your body. Lying on the floor doing knee ways. Have you ever wondered why simple plank, or Superman lying face down raising legs and arms are so effective? Because they’re simple. They’re not grand movements like a Burpee or an overhead press. They recruit muscles to support 
you.
– Counteractive stretches are something i’ve always advocated. Everything we do is so forward focused. When we drive, use our phones, sit at a desk, we move from our mid spine and don’t counteract this movement. Lying back over something allows us to open our chests and stretch the tissue round the front of the shoulders.
– Community is a really important aspect of support, especially if you’ve ever been part of a team. I’d attempt to meditate to focus on myself but my go to focus is outward. We have to look after ourselves first as you can’t pour from an empty cup, or a leaking one.
⁃ Acceptance. I find it really hard to accept help. I never could in hospital, was desperate to get out. So I pushed myself to get out by my husband‘s birthday. We had fish and chips. Despite being told if you can get up steps and into your car, you can go home. Despite being told I’d have to come back the next day to get my plaster taken off my broken hand. Getting in out of the car was hideous, documented well by Miles Teller in Bleed for This. I tweeted him after that scene and commended him on his depiction of that in the film. Travelling in a brace in the back of an Astra is pretty impossible. That handle you use to hang up dry cleaning suddenly became useful.
⁃ Small steps. When I had my accident I was advised to write down my progress. It was hard to see I had at the time as day-to-day changes were minimal. If they said 6 to 12 weeks, I heard six. The disappointment felt huge at the time. But it was only my expectations that were scuppered. No one else’s. How I came up with them I don’t know! I hear a lot about expectations now. Where people should be. They have given themselves a deadline to ‘get back to normal’ yet everyone’s progress is different. We are all slightly changed by experience.
⁃ Journaling. Plenty of times in my life I’ve written things down. As a teenager I kept diaries. In my 20s even. I’d already got my body pain free following all these principles and by lifting heavy weights very slowly, but my mind hadn’t caught up. Unexpressed thoughts have a way of affecting your body that you’ll never imagine. Louise Hay’s book ‘You can heal your life’ will tell you all about that. What your foot pain is trying to tell you etc. But journaling allows you to free your mind to face yourself and all your fears. To deal with your stuff. What’s in your head needs to come out, and it will always come out somewhere or eat away at you.
If I see someone making slow progress, or in pain who doesn’t know how to get out of it, I naturally want to help and offer advice. I’m very proud when I see my friends in the gym getting loosey goosey. Trying to get out of injuries the same way I do.
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